One of the most important steps in becoming a practicing Buddhist is to realize that you have a serious illness. It is a vague, nagging sense of unease that there is something fundamentally off or missing from your life.

As I mentioned earlier in Part 1, many college students come to OCBC with a list of questions that were given to them by their World Religions instructor. Some are looking for answers while others just want to finish their assignment.

Normally when we speak of the two kinds of Buddhism, we usually refer to Theravada Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, the two major streams of Buddhism. But I would like to present what I feel is another way to categorize, or organize Buddhism.

One of the most fundamental of Shin Buddhist texts is the Shoshinge, which is a song or poem written by Shinran Shonin. The Shoshinge is also chanted, and is chanted every morning at the 6:00 a.m. service at our Hongwanji in Japan.

As human beings, we are of two minds. The first mind can be thought of as the small mind. This is the mind that judges and filters all of our experiences as good or bad. It narrates our lives. Just like in a movie trailer, in a very deep voice: “In a world, where Reverend Jon Turner is a super hero, he struggles fiercely to make things right.” However, this small mind cannot really be trusted.

This month as I write this article (March), we are in the midst of wonderful lectures by Dr. Nobuo Haneda. Every year for the past 15 or 16 years we have had Haneda Sensei speak at our Ohigan seminar, service, and remain for BEC lectures. This year he is lecturing on the Life and Thought of Rev. Haya Akegarasu.

This week, I am looking forward to attending a symposium on “Buddhism and Counseling,” which will be the day before the start of the BCA National Council meeting, and is sponsored by the Institute of Buddhist Studies and the Center for Buddhist Education.

Orange County Buddhist Church (OCBC) is located in Anaheim, California. Our tradition is Shin Buddhism, which first came to America 120 years ago under the auspices of the Nishi Hongwanji denomination. OCBC is one of 65 temples that make up the Buddhist Churches of America.